The Lost Boys
by Random One-Shot
Summary: A samurai from the distant past. A communist from the roaring 20's. A Little Boy survivor. A victim of the great famine. A high school student. Mia wasn't sure what she was expecting when her grandfather told her the legend, but it definitely wasn't this


_I don't own any of this stuff. _

_Well, that's not entirely true. I own the alterations I made from the canon universe, but that's about it. Everything from the armor to the dirt the boys walk on is owned by Hajime Yatate and Sunrise©. _

_Would that I could get my hands on a copyright from them. Maybe then I'd be able to get the full series back out onto DVD and not spend every weekend trying to get a head start on the opposition on Ebay! _

* * *

_**Title**: The Lost Boys_

_**Rating: **T, for teen. _

_**Summary**: A samurai from the distant past. A communist from the roaring 20's. A Little Boy survivor. A victim of the great famine. A high school student. Mia wasn't sure what she was expecting when her grandfather told her the legend, but it definitely wasn't this. _

* * *

Tokyo was hot, busy and alive.

One of the largest cities in the world, it was literally filled to bursting with people. Thousands upon thousands of human beings got up in the morning, went to work, went to school, ate lunch, read, watched a movie, listened to music, ate dinner and slept with each cycle of night and day. Train tracks riddled the metropolis like the veins of a living thing, carrying the city's lifeblood – its people – to and fro. With so many people not having the money or the desire to purchase and maintain an automobile, it was the trains that served as the primary means of transportation.

They were good trains, as far as the things went; easily serviceable, dependable and comfortable for the people riding in them. One of the few complaints that had risen over the course of their time was that the brakes could be a pain for those with sensitive ears. Nothing had been done to fix this and so the problem persisted.

Screeee_eeeeeeEEEEEEEEE! _

Mariko watched as the man sitting across the aisle from her winced and covered his ears. If the expression on his face was anything to go by, the noise was causing him a great deal of pain.

"Are you alright?"

The young man opened his eyes from their agony induced squint and blinked at her.

"Hm? Yes, I'm fine. I'm simply not used to all this noise."

Eying the man's clothes, Mariko tried to frame her next question with care.

"You're not from Tokyo then?"

The young man laughed half-heartedly, and reached for the backpack and staff lying on the seat next to him.

It was the staff that she had noticed first when she came into the train compartment. She had only seen one like it before and it was in a temple during her grandmother's funeral. At first, she had thought the man a priest or a monk, but he looked so very young. However, his clothes fit with the idea of a poor monk. They were obviously worn and faded from time, and she could see a patch carefully sewn onto the left sleeve of his coat. His running shoes had dirty pieces of duct tape holding them together. It looked like he had picked his wardrobe up from a charity bin.

"No, I'm not. Just got into town yesterday morning. Walked almost all the way down here from Hakkanai and my feet are killing me," the young man said easily.

"Hakkanai!" Mariko asked disbelievingly. "That's all the way in northern Hokkaido!"

"Yeah, I know. Next time, I'm taking a plane."

He swung his bag onto his shoulders, picked up the shakujo and pulled up the wide straw hat hanging from his neck onto his head. Mariko followed him as he walked toward the door leading out into the station.

The sunlight was a few degrees warmer than the air conditioned atmosphere of the train compartment. The young man stretched gratefully and soaked in the sun.

"Lovely day," Mariko remarked idly.

"Yes indeed," the man replied warmly.

But no sooner had they both spoken then the clouds began to roll in.

(The young man would later learn through extensive personal experience that the universe enjoyed being an absolute _bitch_ like that.)

They were thick, black things made hideous by their sudden appearance and the malice that hung within them. They seemed to emerge from _behind_ the fluffy white cumulus, which was even more disturbing to those who noticed. They did not form from the air; they were simply _there_, roiling out into the blue sky like an oil spill.

Within moments the sunlight had dimmed considerably, throwing the entire station platform into shadow.

Thunder rolled through the air and Mariko shivered, while the man stiffened like a hunting dog.

"Did you hear that?"

"What?" Mariko asked.

The man looked at her and she realized that he had changed. He was no longer the easy going, relaxed traveler she had ridden with. There was tension around his eyes and his right hand gripped the staff tightly.

"It… the laughter. Someone was _laughing_. Didn't you hear it?" said the young man.

"No, just the thunder," Mariko replied. Then, more carefully, she asked, "Are you sure you heard that?"

The young man frowned and glanced around. "Yes, I'm sure I heard…"

He trailed off, his head tilted to one side like a curious bird. If it were not for the fact that he was starting to scare her, she might have found it cute.

Then, abruptly, he snapped out of it. Shaking his head, the young man came back to himself.

"Ah well, nothing to be done about it right now," he said lightly.

For a moment, Mariko relaxed. He seemed to be normal again, but for moment there, even with the other people of the station crowding around her, he had seemed so… unsettling.

Then….

"Miss?"

Mariko blinked.

The young man was smiling gently at her, but it was not really a smile. There was something horribly forced about it.

"I think you should cancel your plans for today and stay home."

Mariko tensed. What on earth…?

"Why? A little bad weather never hurt anyone."

"That's entirely untrue, but just the same – "

And that was when Mariko decided that, _no_, she did not like this man and she never would.

"– look at those clouds. They aren't normal. It would be safer to stay inside for their duration, I think."

Mariko sniffed and hitched her purse high onto her shoulder.

"Thank you for the advice, but I can't. I've got to get to a friend's house. We're helping her cousin get married, so I really can't just run off on them."

And then she abandoned dignity and quickly jogged away.

She did not see the young man stare after her until she turned a corner and disappeared from his sight.

(Many, many long weeks later, when the world was marginally saner, Mariko would look back on that day and wonder how her life would have turned out had she heeded that man's advice.)

The young man clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and sighed.

"Ominous clouds, creepy laughter that no one else hears and the first pretty girl I talk to thinks I'm an axe murderer out for her blood. It's going to be one _those_ days…," he said.

He was beginning to draw stares from the people around him, as he had not moved since the clouds emerged a minute earlier. Ignoring their looks, the young man lowered the brim of his wide straw hat until its shadow covered his face and then began walking away from the train. His staff hung heavily in his right hand, the rings occasionally making soft chiming sounds when they clinked together.

'_To the ten thousand gods who watch over this land, I send this prayer: give me the strength to save what I can, the grace to accept what I cannot and the good luck to not fuck up too badly. Amen.' _

The young man descended from the train platform and began moving into the city.

* * *

Episode 1

Shadowland

* * *

In a dark room of the university, there was a girl.

This girl was unbothered by the darkened room she sat in. The sun would probably come back out again soon and the computer screen gave off its own glow anyway. She knew what cast the strange shapes against the walls. The old armor suits and weapons were nearly friends to her after two years. She was not bothered by the fact that almost no one at all was in the building with her. She had enough company hanging behind her right shoulder.

What did bother her was the fact that her nearly computer illiterate grandfather insisted on backseat typing.

'_Rekka… Suiko… Korin… Kongo… Tenku. There, done.'_

The computer hummed nearly loud enough to rattle the desk. Mia could hear it thinking and was surprised that she did not smell something burning.

"Blasted machine. Hurry up."

"This would probably go faster if you didn't insist on using this bizarre code, grandfather. Just let me decode all the files and it'll cut the loading time in half, I swear," Mia said.

"Not a chance," Yagyu Satoshi responded. Then, "Ah!" as the screen flashed once more and a new line of garbled text appeared.

Mia's thoughts derailed as her mind automatically began deciphering the code her grandfather had taught her.

'_Those are the armors from that legend he studies so much, the one he told me when I was little. Wildfire, Heaven, Diamond or was it Hard Rock armor? The water armor was… Wait. …Wait, what is this? …What **is** this?' _

The screen of the battered Macintosh Plus was fritzing even worse than that time the idiot students in the electronics program had gotten bored and played with a new virus they had built. The words, as much as Mia could make out between the flashing screen and the code, were shifting around. It was as though they had come alive and were crawling around behind the screen's glass.

'_And wh§ξα_ס־־־ ־ם_ōadow covers the world, then sλ_ءءءءم؛ױٻﻻ _warriors arise to bring salvation to this world.'_

"And when the great shadow covers the world, then shall five chosen warriors rise up to save this Earth," Mia's grandfather whispered behind her.

Mia had always known that the Mac was an unstable piece of junk that had been used too rough and hard by irresponsible college students to survive for much longer. Even so, she had never expected to be peering at half-comprehensible code, her face only inches from the small screen, when it finally gave up the ghost and exploded.

The screen twitched one last time and then flared a brilliant, dazzling purple light into her eyes. Yelping, Mia shoved herself backwards, the wheeled chair beneath her bottom sliding freely along the linoleum. The screen shattered outwards, broken glass scattering along the floor, and smoke and sparks filling the air with the smell of burning plastic. The innards of the computer popped loudly.

Coughing, Mia staggered up from her chair and ran towards the fire extinguisher that hung from the wall next to the bookcase for the archeology texts. As she ran back to the computer with the extinguisher in hang, Mia saw through the haze of smoke that her grandfather had not moved from his spot near the desk.

The phone began ringing as she sprayed the oxygen killer all over the hissing computer, thoroughly ruining all the papers on the desk in the process.

'_Of course,'_ Mia thought bitterly. What was chaos without some more trouble on top of it? It was probably the dean wanting to know what that loud popping sound had been. His office was right above her grandfather's.

Eleven sweeps of the nozzle had the computer – and everything else – buried underneath thick white foam that stung Mia's nostrils when she breathed. There did not seem to be any chance for the fire in the computer to catch hold of anything else at that point, so Mia dropped the heavy extinguisher to the ground.

It was at that point that she realized her grandfather was speaking and the ringing had stopped.

"…yes, I feel it too. …yes, I understand. It would certainly be safer, but… Date-san, do you think we can get away by now? I thought we would have more warning, but all the signs…."

"Grandfather?" Mia called. "I need some help –"

He shushed her.

There was a blanket of chemical extinguishing agent covering half his office, they would have the administration on their heads very soon, the thesis he had been working on for _seven months_ was ruined and he _shushed her_ while he talked on the phone?

"Where are you now? Could you come and… no, what am I thinking? You're needed. There must… No. _No_, you cannot come; what if the others need you? We'll just have to come to you. I don't think we can get out of its area of influence fast enough. I'll send Mia ahead and catch…. Don't even think it. You can't risk everything for one – "

"Grandfather," Mia called again.

He looked up at Mia and said into the phone, quickly and forcefully, "She's coming. Meet her at Yukishiro's Sweet Shop. I will catch up when I can."

Then he hung up, though 'slammed the phone into its cradle' would be more accurate.

"Mia," he said seriously. "Listen carefully. I need you to take the Samurai, go into the city and find a man named Date; him and a few others. They'll be waiting for you by the ice cream parlor you like. Their names are Sanada Ryo, Hashiba Touma, Shu Rei Fan and Mouri Shin. Stay with them until I catch up. They'll keep you safe."

"What?" Mia asked. "What are you talking about? This place is a mess and you need to -"

He grabbed her arm and used it to march her out of the office, which was when Mia realized that this was really not about the computer at all.

Behind them, there was a rumbling that shook the building slightly and then a blinding, deafening clap of lightning that had Mia jump an inch off the floor. The window must have been unlatched because there was a crash behind them, glass breaking, and then wind was tugging at her loose hair and clothes. Papers flew out of the office behind them and raced ahead of her down the hallway.

Her grandfather's hand never loosened its grip.

His feet never slowed down their pace.

"Mia," Satoshi said. "You _must _listen to what I'm about to say. Your life may depend upon it."

Behind them, the phone began ringing shrilly, again and again. They did not stop and, after a while, the noise faded away into the roar of wind and thunder that seemed to cover the world.

Mia wondered when it had gotten so cold.

* * *

People were running everywhere. If they had a specific destination in mind, Kamui did not share it with them. Now that the glass had stopped raining down from the shattered building windows, it seemed that the center of the street was not the smartest place to be.

Where a safer place was, however, was a question Kamui had no answer to.

He had felt it as soon as he entered the prefecture: a malice that saturated the air and weighed most heavily upon the city itself. Something inside Tokyo, or very close to it, was _hating_ with all its heart. It was not the lingering bad feelings of an old murder or betrayal, like those Kamui sometimes encountered. This emotion was alive and aware. There had been times during the train ride into Tokyo that Kamui had thought to reach out and try to make contact with it. The thought had never lasted long. Whatever it was, it was easily capable of crushing him like an insect if he caught its attention. There had been a sense of _nearness_, of danger fast approaching. The malice, the rage, was only a step behind a thin curtain and the entire hour Kamui had spent wandering the city had made him feel as though a knife was hanging above his head, ready to fall.

There had been a sense of _approaching_ to the wickedness; of _nearing_. It was the feeling that came with a tsunami, when all the animals fled and the tide shrank back into the ocean just before the killer wave swept everything into its horrifying embrace.

Except now the water had come back; now the knife had fallen.

There had been just the briefest warning. Time had seemed to slow for a moment, sound fading, and then there was an almost-voice in his ears.

"_Take cover." _

And the alley had suddenly seemed so inviting.

Kamui had no idea what to do, no idea how to stop the mindless panic that had overtaken the city (_stop it_, ha! As if he could. The master would lecture him on humility and modesty and the evils of pride, and damn if Kamui did not wish the old man was with him), but there was the boy, looking so small and lost in his yellow sweater, and he could do something about that, at least.

Maybe.

The boy had fallen and he was being trampled. No one noticed a small child when they were running for their lives. The boy had been knocked every which way, maybe trying to get into the same alley as Kamui, but far more likely he was just lost. It did not really matter. The narrow area between two buildings was somehow empty of people and it was safer than the crushing mass of humanity.

Kamui did not think, did not try to plan. There was not any plan that would have worked. He darted in, the shakujo acting as a thin barrier on his left side, and after five steps into the screaming river of humans Kamui reached down blindly, nearly losing his balance and joining the child on the road. Then his fingers touched thick cotton and he grabbed, pulled, heaved the boy up and then dragged both of them to the alley.

Rather, he tried to.

Someone shoved where he was not braced and gravity was suddenly very insistent. Kamui crashed into someone – likely a female someone, judging from the curves – who managed to not only stand her ground, but also grabbed hold of Kamui and began pulling him to the side of the street. One quick glance at their direction told Kamui that his alley (strange to think of it as such, but there it was) was closer and he found his feet, keeping pace with the woman next to him and hauling the boy behind him.

As soon as they were clear, Kamui let go of both child and woman, and the small boy crawled away from him, coming to a stop at the base of a dumpster. He looked up at Kamui as though the man was a new, fascinating life form. And then he looked _through_ Kamui, tuning the other out so completely that the small boy may as well have been alone in the dark sanctuary.

'_Shock_,' Kamui diagnosed tiredly. He could not blame the boy.

There were several ways to approach someone in a disaster situation, but Kamui could not remember any of the stories the priests had told him about the atom bombs or earthquakes or floods. _'Just be kind'_, they had all said. Even if he could have remembered more than that, he would not have cared. The world had lost its mind and manners only counted for the sane.

With the girl, a pretty brunette in pink, standing at the entrance of the alley and looking wildly for an opening in the crowd, Kamui found himself sitting down hard next to the boy, his backpack digging into his spine as he leaned against the dumpster. The kid jerked his head to look at Kamui, indicating he had not heard the young man's approach. It was a testament to how utterly freaked out the poor kid was, Kamui thought. Even through the loud pandemonium of panicking Tokyo, the shakujo's chiming cut through loud and clear.

(And there was probably some way to turn that into a deep, meaningful metaphor, but who cared? Kamui did not, that was for sure. The thing drew all kinds of weird looks with his clothes and he was starting to wonder why the old man had made him take it.)

"Hi," Kamui said lazily.

The boy stared blankly at him for a few seconds and Kamui was just starting to wonder if maybe he had not been heard when the kid spoke back.

"Hi."

'_Progress_,' Kamui thought.

"What's your name?" Kamui asked.

"Jun."

The kid was starting to look better as he spoke.

"Jun, huh? Good name. I'm Kamui. Do you know where your parents are?"

As soon as he said the words, Kamui winced. He could probably guess where the kid's parents were – swept away in the human river and crushed flat.

The boy – Jun – pointed at the flood of humans.

"Somewhere over there. We got pushed apart and I tried to go look for them. I'm not big enough to push all those people away."

Kamui laughed, although it was tinged with hysteria. Was it just his imagination or was the feeling of evil that permeated the city getting even stronger?

"S'okay, Jun. I'm not big enough either. How about we both just – "

And no, it _was not _his imagination. There was a buildup of energy, almost like lightning was about to strike. Then Kamui was grabbing Jun's sweater and pulling him down to the ground along with himself, almost wrapping his body around the boy's as all of his hair tried to stand straight up.

_- reaching reaching hunger wanting seeking finding laughter laughter grabbing pulling –_

_- a great and terrible fear that was distinctly human, but coming from uncountable millions - _

'_Merciful Kannon, be with me now in my hour of need, oh Compassionate One, guard me from the evils that have come to this poor, damned place.' _

The world seemed to tilt on its axis and Kamui felt his stomach rise into his throat. There was a nearby shriek and then another body fell down by Kamui. It was the girl, now away from her vigil at the alley entrance, and Kamui reached over and grabbed her too. The screaming reached a fever pitch outside of the debatably safe haven they had found. Kamui felt the mindless terror and despair of the millions of people threaten to overwhelm him and he clutched the poor child and girl to his chest, using them as anchors. Kamui breathed in and it was like he could taste the evil power in the air.

'_Can they feel it too? Is that why they're all so –'_

Then the world went entirely upside down for a moment and Kamui _felt_ more than _saw_ the people outside the alley disappear.

_- laughter laughter laughter_ –

'_Don't let it find me, please don't.'_

And that was when the old staff in his hand _jerked_.

_Clangclangclangclang! _

'_That sound?'_

The polished wood rapidly grew warm in his hand and Kamui had the strangest sensation that he was rising on a wave in the ocean, but this was no killer tsunami. This was the inexorable, unstoppable gentle wave that swept all the filth away into the unending purity of the ocean and left only cleanliness in its wake. The world went peculiarly bright and the next thing Kamui knew, Jun was shaking him.

"…ake up, mister! You gotta wake up, something bad happened! Wake up! Please, wake up!"

"Damn," Kamui muttered.

The child's face slid in and out of focus a few times before deciding to stay put. Kamui sat up slowly, his pounding head protesting every second of it. Jun leaned back onto his knees once he saw that Kamui was moving.

At once, it struck the young man that it was incredibly quiet. The screaming had stopped. Looking past Jun, Kamui saw that the people were all gone. Strangely, it did not surprise him as much as he thought it should have.

"They're gone…," Kamui muttered.

"Why'd you grab me?" Jun demanded. "You pulled me down, and when I looked up it was all quiet and everybody was gone!"

Kamui ignored him and stood up. There was an absolute riot of negative energy above him, but it seemed to be calming down. Whatever had happened seemed to have run its course.

Jun darted out of the alley before Kamui could stop him. The young man wasted no time following the boy, more afraid of being alone in the desolate, creepy city than anything else. Jun had not gone far. After taking off his jacket and wrapping it around the staff's head to muffle the clanging of the rings, Kamui followed the boy out into the street.

It was completely empty. Broken glass and debris littered the sidewalks. Kamui saw a pink shoe lying forlornly off to one side of the road. A few purses were scattered across the tarmac. A small, handheld radio without the power to even hiss static. That was all. Every person who had been congesting the streets not one minute earlier was gone without a trace.

"Where'd they all go?" Jun whispered.

Kamui blinked, wrenching his mind away from the horrible scene he found himself in. The answer to that question was one he thought he knew. The feeling of caged lightning above him had grown more stable over time. Looking up, Kamui saw the same wicked looking, greenish-black clouds that had appeared so suddenly an hour earlier.

But something had indeed changed.

Through the thick clouds, Kamui saw a vague outline. It had no recognizable form that he knew of, but it was there. There was a long shape there; a broad shape there. Some tapered off into points and others simply faded away. They all connected together into a hulking mass that remained just out of sight, much like the feeling of barely veiled malice he had encountered what seemed like a lifetime earlier.

"Up there," Kamui whispered.

It was one thing to have nightmares for weeks on end. It was one thing to hear himself say he was going to Tokyo to fight whatever was coming. It was one thing to be part of the hundreds pushing their way through the streets in fear and desperation.

It was quite another to be standing alone in the empty wreck of one of the greatest cities on Earth and staring up at something he did not want to see, something he should not be _able_ to see, and to know that the only other people around were a little boy and a girl his age.

_I should have stayed in Hakkanai. _

The realization was a cold rock in his mind.

Without him realizing it, Jun had moved closer to stand beside Kamui. The small boy's hands wrapped themselves into Kamui's shirt and stayed there. Absentmindedly, Kamui hugged him closer.

"We need to move," Kamui heard himself say. "It isn't safe to stay here in the open."

Jun said nothing. He seemed to have recovered from his brief shock now that he was holding onto Kamui.

The teenager turned them back towards the alley. The girl in pink was lying on the dirt, unmoving. Upon reaching her, Kamui found her awake, but in shock. Her face was white and her breathing was erratic. Huffing, he raised her up into a sitting position and absentmindedly began brushing dirt off of her sweater.

"What's wrong with her?" Jun asked.

"I think she's just scared," Kamui responded. Then, "Miss? Can you tell us your name?"

"…u…i…"

"What'd you say?" That was Jun, crouching in front of her.

"Na… Nasuti, my name is Yagyu Nasuti," the girl said quickly, almost stuttering in her haste.

* * *

_The world has gone irrevocably, absolutely insane,_ Mia thought.

Everyone was gone. _Everyone_. Every single panicking person that had been running through the streets only a minute ago was _gone_. All the people who had been huddled in the doorways were _gone_. All the people screaming from the windows of the buildings were _gone_.

And it was dark, getting darker by the minute, even though she knew it was still mid-afternoon. The shadows were already fading into true night, which made _absolutely no sense_.

And earlier the electricity had stopped. That was why she had taken that policeman's bike, even though the crowds had forced her to abandon it later. It was not a blackout. Blackouts did not make cars stall.

Was it an EMP? Were they being attacked? Did the people get vaporized by some new super weapon? Was it –

"Stop that," the young man dusting her off said firmly.

His voice was like a whip. Mia jerked out of her thoughts and turned to stare at him blankly. He was not quite frowning at her, but it came close.

"Look, you're about one second from freaking out. That's fine. What just happened is absolutely screwed up and we are in trouble, but you can't _actually_ freak out. Everyone is gone and it's just the three of us for now. That means if you freak out, we have to deal with it. _He_," the teenager pointed to the little boy, "just got separated from his parents. He cannot deal with that. _I_ do not _want_ to deal with that. Now, get up and let's go. We need to leave."

Vague, half formed thoughts about waiting for help and staying in one place when trouble occurs flitted through Mia's mind, but the young man was inexorable. He had her up and moving before she fully realized it.

The quiet beyond the alley scared her. In all her life, she had never seen the streets of the Shinjuku ward so utterly desolate. Things lay scattered across the street and sidewalks, evidence of the people who had been there only minutes before. She never got the full picture, never stopped to stare at the ruin, but only because the man holding her hand would not allow her to. She was vaguely aware of Jun's small hand knotting itself into a fist around her sweater as he trailed behind her.

"So… Yagyu-san, you said? I'm Kamui. The kid is Jun. Sorry we had to meet under such bad circumstances, but hey, nice to know you. My teachers always said the best friendships could be formed during the worst of times, so I'm sure we'll be getting to know each other pretty good over the next few hours. Do you like instant ramen? I tell you, it's the eighth wonder of the world…."

Mia followed mutely, her head turning as if on a hinge each time they crossed a street to view more of the desolation. Kamui's words flowed over her like a stream and she heard none of them for the longest time.

"…we need to get out of Shinjuku, probably out of Tokyo in general, so I'm thinking we should head north to Toshima and then through Kita or Itabashi. We should be out of the area of influence then, so we can get a train or plane ride to Hakkanai and get some help. Do you have any other place you'd like to go? Friends or relatives out of the country? If so, you might want –"

"Wait," Mia said, feeling like her head was stuffed with wool. She could not make sense of the other teen's nonsensical ramblings, but the words 'north', 'Toshima' and 'Hakkanai' had jumped out at her.

"You… want to get out of Shinjuku?"

Kamui turned his head to give her an unflattering look. "Um… yes? In case you haven't noticed, this isn't exactly Tokyo's hotspot right now."

Mia had noticed. She was beginning to notice other things, as well; things that she should have noticed earlier. Like the fact that Kamui was keeping them in the shadows as much as possible, ducking behind cars and cutting through buildings whenever they could. Like the fact that, although he was talking nonstop since the moment they left the alley, his voice had never risen much above a whisper. Like the fact that he was so obviously forcing himself to be cheerful, even when the white knuckled grip on his staff clearly said he wanted to scream.

And, somehow, that brought her back to herself.

Kamui began again. "So, as I was saying, we should – "

Mia could not let him finish.

"I can't," Mia cut in. "I left my grandfather at the university. I can't go anywhere until I check on him."

Kamui blinked at her, that one simple action carrying a whole paragraph of subtext. "How far is that school from here?"

Mia frowned. "About 23 kilometers."

Kamui shook his head. "No. No _way_. Even if he is there, which we don't know, going that distance, on foot, when the city is like this? No. Not going to work."

Mia felt her frown slide into a scowl and yanked her hand loose from Kamui's grip. "I didn't ask for your permission. I'm glad you stayed instead of running off and leaving me, but I can go alone if I need to. I'm not leaving before –"

"And what if you get yanked away like all the other people? What if something goes after you because you're alone?" Kamui whispered violently. "You think you can get far in the dark? Because if it's like this at noon, imagine what it will be like when the sun goes down."

"_I'll be fine_," Mia spat. "I can get a bicycle so I'm not on foot and once I get moving, there won't be a lot that could catch up. If I don't get back before dark, I'll just find a place to rest for the night. And _what_ exactly would go after me? _Everyone's gone!" _

She felt something in her mind slip a bit as she actually processed what she had shouted. Everyone was gone. Vanished into thin air. Kamui's face had gone white, though she expected it had more to do with her volume than her words. Behind her, she could feel Jun shaking.

"Not so loud," Kamui said frantically, looking around them into the empty streets. "Don't draw any attention to us."

"Why?" Mia pressed. "What are you so afraid of? You think monsters are going to come out and get us?"

"Yes," Kamui said, dead serious.

She felt her lips stretch back over her teeth, half smile and half sneer, ready to laugh at him –

- and felt her brain come to a full stop when she realized she believed it too.

_No,_ she thought. _Just flat out _no_. An EMP wiped out the electronics. A new weapon destroyed or transported the people in the streets. It missed us by chance. The clouds are a heavy storm coming in. There are no monsters. _

The words did nothing for her sense of dread.

"Please don't yell," Jun whispered. "It's scary."

Kamui's glance flickered down to the boy before going back to her. The cheerful façade was gone now and Mia saw how much strain was truly in the young man – not much more than a teenager himself, she saw - facing her.

"If you want to call me insane, fine," Kamui said. "I really don't care. _Something_ is blocking out the sun. _Something_ zapped away at least 250,000 people. Even if it was something science did, do you really want to be alone if it happens again?"

The answer was obviously no, but Mia could not say it. She had to find her grandfather. It was that simple.

Kamui evidently saw something of her thoughts in her face because he groaned and massaged his eyes.

"Look, maybe I need to explain this again. Shinjuku is _dead_ for the immediate future and that means no EMTs, no police, no firemen, no hospital; we have no help whatsoever if we get in trouble. Why go looking for it?"

"You don't know that," Mia refuted. She did not believe it; _could not_ believe it. "Even if… whatever this is hit the whole ward, the others would send help, probably already have sent help. We just need to wait and we can… why are you shaking your head?"

"How long would it take them to find us? How long would it take them to get to us? All the power is gone, apparently even to independent things like cars and radios. Let's say whatever rescue vehicles get sent into the area don't immediately shut down: how quickly are they going to find three people in all of this?"

"We could…." Mia trailed off. Short of a signal fire, she really had no idea. The thought of a blaze was not very enticing either, because, as Kamui had said, if they got into trouble, no one was around to help. One blown spark could set the whole ward ablaze.

In short, if they wanted to get out, they would very likely have to do it themselves.

"All right," Mia finally admitted. "I get what you're trying to say. We'd probably be better off leaving ourselves."

Kamui nodded.

"However!"

And promptly groaned not a moment later. Mia ignored his dismay and continued talking.

"I still have to try to find my grandfather. I won't just –"

"_LOOK AT THAT!"_ Jun suddenly screamed.

* * *

Kamui's head snapped down to see Jun pointing away from them. Following the finger, Kamui looked down the street and saw something out of a nightmare. Specifically, something out of his nightmares.

It was easily nine feet tall and built like a tank. The dark green armor was something out of a museum; a relic that he would have expected to see worn on a fifteenth century samurai. It carried a kusari-gama – a scythe on a weighted chain – sized to fit it and if the way it held the weapon was any indication, the thing knew how to use it. Now that he could see it, Kamui could feel it too. Separating the monster's aura from the background was difficult, rather like trying to see a very dark green on a canvas of black, but possible. What Kamui felt flowing off of it did not make him feel better.

The fact that it was also coming towards them helped his next decision.

"_Run!"_

Kamui grabbed Jun by the shoulder and shoved Nasuti with the shakujo. They really did not need the encouragement. Kamui found them both keeping up with him just fine as they raced for the nearest open doorway, which happened to be a department store. Behind them, he could hear the heavy clanking of the monster coming after them.

The electronic sliding doors had stalled in the open position and the trio darted inside with no opposition. They found themselves in the clothing department once they got past the entry way. Kamui kept them moving, ducking behind racks and shelves whenever they presented themselves.

"Where are we going?" Jun whispered.

Kamui shushed him and reached out with his sixth sense for the pursuer. It was disturbingly close. Could it feel them too?

The darkness in the department store was nearly absolute. Maybe the thing could feel them and maybe it could not, but that did not really matter after Nasuti bumped into a rack of half-price dresses and made it rattle. Kamui felt the monster charge towards them and soon after that he could hear it crashing through the displays after them.

Abandoning all pretense of stealth, they ran for the dim outline of a door and slammed into it. It turned out to be an emergency exit and they found themselves in another alley.

"_Move!_" Kamui screamed, feeling the monster coming up behind them like a freight train. They ran down the alley, but only made it fifteen feet before the door behind them exploded out of its frame and slammed into the wall opposite it, a dented wreck of what it used to be.

What followed was one of those instantaneous realizations, where several things line up and connect at the same time.

Kamui knew that it was about to catch them.

Kamui knew that it was going to kill them, if they were lucky.

Kamui knew that he had a slightly better chance of survival than the girl and the child.

Kamui knew that if he left a girl and a child to die when he could have helped them, he would never forgive himself as long as he lived.

And finally, though he did not know it for sure, Kamui was pretty sure that even an evil spirit would feel a staff to the face.

In the time span of one second, between the monster knocking the door out of its frame and coming within grabbing distance of them, Kamui let go of Jun, spun around and yanked his jacket off of the shakujo.

The monster charged and Kamui swung.

* * *

Mia burst out of the alley and did not look back. That Kamui was no longer running between herself and Jun had not yet registered. All that she knew was that something was chasing her.

They had emerged onto a street she recognized; irony of ironies, the very street she had been trying to get to only an hour earlier. Yukishiro's Sweet Shop was closest and she ran toward it, yanking Jun along when he began to drift away from her. It was only when she crossed the street and reached the sidewalk in front of the sweet shop that she heard the yelling behind her.

Stopping in the doorway of the shop, she turned around and looked back into the alley they had run out of. Kamui was swinging his shakujo at the armored monster. Between the monster's dark armor and the lack of light, she could not see how much damage (if any) that he had inflicted, but the simple fact that Kamui was still moving amazed the part of her that remained free from terror.

_We have to help_, Mia thought wildly. _He'll get crushed if we don't. But how? _

"We can't leave him," said Jun, voicing her thoughts.

"I know," agreed Mia. "But we can't just –"

The door bell behind them jangled.

A half strangled gasp escaped Mia's throat (how stupid she was to have not checked) and –

"What's going on?"

- the scream that was coming up behind it stopped short.

Suddenly feeling nothing but confusion, Mia turned around and saw a teenage boy, just a few years younger than her, standing in the doorway. He was brown-haired and blue-eyed, looked as innocent as a babe, and was wearing a full body suit of white and blue metal armor. Mia could not find it in herself to ask why.

Jun found words before she did. Pointing across the street, the boy simply said "You have to help us!"

A loud, unreal cracking sound drew Mia's attention back to the other side of the street. The fight had spilled out of the alley and to the front of the stores. The monster had shattered the pavement with one blow, driving its arm in up to the elbow. Kamui had only just avoided the strike, it seemed. His face was white and his lips were pulled back in a wordless scream. The shakujo clanged wildly in his grasp, but there was nothing of the earlier confidence in its ringing. Whatever had possessed the young man in the alley that they had met in had left him now. The clangs seemed to be a call for help.

Whoever he was, the armored boy certainly seemed to be a decent person. He took one look at the situation, then pulled Mia and Jun into the dubious shelter of the sweet shop. "Stay here," was all he said. Then he was running across the street towards Kamui.

* * *

All Kamui could think was, _Well, at least it hasn't thought to use the kusari-gama yet._

For something so big, the monster was frighteningly, _blindingly_ fast and the only thing that kept Kamui alive so far were the little twinges of intuition that warned him when and where the monster was about to strike. Even then it was a near thing and that last attack had showered him with bits of pavement and dust. Coughing, Kamui staggered back and turned to run again.

It grabbed his backpack and Kamui tried to slid out of the straps without a second thought. He could get it back later, if he lived. A problem occurred when he realized he would have to drop the shakujo to escape and losing his only real weapon was _not_ something he could do without a second thought. Had he been given even another moment to react, Kamui would have tossed it into his other hand.

The monster was far quicker.

Even one strap was sufficient to drag Kamui back. The young man's feet left the ground with the force of the tug and he staggered back into the creature. On his other side, the fearsome kusari-gama raised up, the sickle end razor sharp, and Kamui only felt sad that his life would have to end after only twenty years.

Which was thankfully when a blur of white and blue _slammed_ into the monster and knocked it clear though the store window with a loud clanging sound.

Kamui stared at the shattered window and numbly thought, _well, I'm glad it let go of me when it did that._

"Are you okay?"

The boy was shaking him gently. Kamui blinked and realized that, no, the boy was not wearing a strange form of biking gear. His entire body below the neck was covered in blue and white metal. That explained the clanging sound when he had struck, then.

"Yes, I'm fine. Who are you, exactly?"

The boy smiled. "I'm –"

The weight on the chain smashed into the side of the boy's head and sent him flying. Such an attack had surely broken the boy's neck and Kamui cursed, switching the shakujo to his other hand and dropping his backpack to the ground. He raised the shakujo just barely in time to block the next strike, but the force of it still sent him flying. He landed hard on the road and slid, the asphalt beneath him chewing away at his clothes and flesh.

Scrambling to his feet, he saw the monster calmly stepping back through the window and reeling in the chain for another strike.

"You are a fool to fight me," the monster said. The kusari-gama rose for another strike.

"And you will die a fool's death."

Any shock Kamui might have felt at hearing the thing speak was overcome by a wave of desperate rage at its words. That boy had helped him, a perfect stranger, against a monster, and in return for his kindness, he had been….

Later, when things had calmed down, Kamui would wonder how he had known to do what followed. His free hand slipped into his pocket and found one of the paper talismans the old man had given him as protection against evil spirits. His fingers drew it out, folded it once lengthwise to stiffen it, and – _destroy this evil abomination who seeks my destruction! _- then he threw it at the creature.

The little paper slip shot forward like a throwing dart and adhered to the monster's chest plate as though it had been glued there. Even more amazing were the glowing arcs of energy, like little lightning bolts, that blasted out of it to strike at the monster. It screamed horribly and then fell to its knees, smoking. The paper slip, now charred almost to ash, fell away to the pavement.

Kamui fell to his knees as well, suddenly exhausted.

A quiet clanging sound next to him made him turn his head.

"That was amazing," the very-much-not-dead boy said softly. "How did you do that?"

"Never mind that," Kamui said breathlessly. "How the _fuck_ did that not kill you?"

"The armor protected me," said the boy simply.

"It didn't hit your armor! It caught you clean in the face and the force behind it should have shattered every bone in your neck, not to mention your skull!"

"Well, yeah, but the armor still –"

There was a creaking, groaning sound of metal being strained, and both of them turned to look at the monster. It was getting back up onto its feet and it did not look happy.

"Hit it again!" shouted the boy.

"I _can't,_ I'm drained dry," Kamui responded. "You hit it again!"

"I am going to _slaughter you both!"_ screamed the monster, and then it charged.

* * *

The boy's armored fist grabbed hold of Kamui's coat and his shirt beneath it. He dragged the young man up and then shoved him out of the way before stepping up to meet the monster's charge. It hit him hard enough to send him skidding back a dozen feet before he caught himself. Beneath the monster's weight, the boy gritted his teeth. It was like holding back an avalanche.

"Hit me, will you?" the monster hissed and then, impossibly, pressed harder. The boy's eyes widened as he felt himself beginning to fall back.

"Pathetic humans need to _learn their place!"_

And then he was toppling over, the monster's kusari-gama poised to pierce through his heart the moment he hit the ground, and he did not know if his armor would be enough to stop it.

So he fell and he made sure it would not come to that.

The judo throw was not an easy one when your opponent was almost twice your size and who knew how many times heavier, but having super strength certainly helped. As he fell back, his hands went from pushing the monster away to pushing it over his head. His legs left the ground entirely to come up and add their own strength to shifting the monster's bulk. In a second, the boy had heaved the monster over him and was lying on the sidewalk with nothing more than an aching head from his previous injury and the fresher collision that had just occurred.

Scrambling to his feet, the boy jumped away from the monster to gain some distance between them. He was going to need a moment for what followed.

Slammed his hands together and focusing all the energy of the armor he wore through them, the boy yelled a war cry at the top of his lungs.

"_Buso Suiko!"_

* * *

Mia saw the new boy bring his hands together and a bright glow seep out from between his fingers. Then she had to look away when the glow became too bright to bear. Beside her, she heard Jun cry out from pain and guessed that he had not looked away quick enough.

When she could bear to look again, the boy was encased head to toe in a new form of armor. Much thicker and heavier than the last, it vaguely resembled the monster's armor in that it would not have looked out of place in a museum. His helmet rose to a fin-like crest on top and a yari was hanging from his back. It looked heavy, but even with all the extra armor weighing him down, he pulled it into his hand and brought it to bear like it was nothing.

"Okay! Try hurting me now, metal head!" the boy yelled.

The taunt, childish as it was, was still effective. The monster howled with outrage and charged again. Mia held her breath, remembering how easily it had knocked the boy back the last time, but her fears were unfounded. Almost faster than she could see, brought the yari up and slammed the edge of the blade through the monster's left shoulder. The entire arm dropped to the ground, foul smoke issuing out from the metal. The monster reeled back, screaming.

The boy was not done. He drew the yari back to his side and aimed the bladed end at the monster. Focused light began to gather at the tip and this time Mia knew to look away before it happened. Grabbing Jun, she pushed him down beneath the sweet shop counter and threw herself in after him, squeezing her eyes shut as tightly as she could.

It barely made a difference.

* * *

Kamui was hurting all over, hurting in places he had not known he had. While he was sure that the boy had meant well, the fact remained that his shove had nearly sent Kamui flying. The asphalt had eaten away at his skin again and Kamui thought that if he lifted up his shirt, he would not find any skin left on his body. He almost wished that the monster _had_ killed him. Death could not be so painful.

Using the shakujo as a crutch got him back on his feet. Kamui raised his head to see the boy glow far brighter than anyone who was not a radiation victim had a right to, and then he was cursing as he was temporarily blinded. His vision came back just in time to see the boy aim his yari and for a new light to begin shining. That, combined with the ominous feeling of power gathering, was enough to make him dive to the ground and cover his head with his arms. Kamui felt a little more of his skin being shredded off and quietly tried not to weep.

"_Cho Ryu Ha!" _

An excruciatingly loud explosion rocked the earth. Kamui's eyes burned even as he closed them and buried his face in his arms. It was as though a star had descended. Worst of all was the massive output of power coming from the boy. Kamui could feel it singing in every atom of his body and, though it had none of the evil he found in the skies above, the sheer amount of it still made him want to run and hide somewhere.

Dimly, Kamui was aware of someone screaming and he felt the aura of the monster being washed away like so much dirt in the river of power that was flowing from the boy.

Then it gradually tapered off and faded. Only moments after it had begun, Kamui found the light fading and the noise dimming. With his eyes ringing and his eyes watering, the young man pushed himself off the ground for what he swore would be the last time that day. Blinking the dust and tears out of his eyes helped his vision only a little and the boy was a teal blob in his sight.

Far more impressive once his vision began to clear was the damage the attack had caused.

The department store that stood across the street from the sweet shop was almost entirely _gone_, as were the shop that had stood behind it. The boy's attack had smashed a massive hole clean through it and it had collapsed inward. Kamui gave it a few more minutes before it collapsed entirely, if even that. Even ignoring the massive amounts of dust that had been kicked up, that was reason enough to leave.

_We should get out of here,_ he thought.

Coughing, Kamui began hobbling towards their savior.

Nor was he the only one. Nasuti and Jun, both stumbling a bit from what had to be shock, were moving towards the boy as well. They arrived in time to catch him before he collapsed, his harsh breathing sounding vaguely metallic through the visor of his helmet.

"Thanks," said the boy.

Kamui and Nasuti gently lowered the boy to the ground. He dropped the yari and tugged off his helmet, revealing the fair face that had first struck Nasuti only a short while ago as innocent. His long brown hair was mussed and his face was flushed from exertion, but his eyes were bright and there was a wild sort of grin on his face.

"That was rather awesome," Kamui finally said, breaking the silence. "Care to explain?"

"It was Suiko, wasn't it?" Nasuti said, earning a startled glance from the boy. "Earlier, you said 'buso suiko' to call this armor, right? The Armor of the Torrent?"

"Erm… yes, actually. But how do you know that?" asked the boy.

"Yagyu Satoshi, my grandfather, studied the legend surrounding your armor ever since he was my age," Nasuti explained. "I've been helping him with his research lately. I never dreamed any of it was real, though."

"Oh, you're Yagyu-san's granddaughter!" The name of Yagyu had produced a startling change in the boy. Suddenly he was standing on his feet and taking Nasuti's hand.

"That explains it! He was such a help to us, to me in particular! Do you know, is he safe or did the Youjakai get him?"

The question rocked Nasuti visibly. She had forgotten all about her grandfather in the chaos that had taken over the last few minutes, Kamui mused.

"I-I-I don't know," Nasuti stammered. "I was going back to find him when –"

Kamui felt the presence a moment before it attacked. Cursing himself for his tunnel vision when it appeared the danger had passed, he knocked Nasuti to the ground and stepped in front of Jun, the shakujo raised feebly. Behind him, he heard the boy give a cry and saw him go for the yari out of the corner of his eye, but it was too late. The second monster, who must have been watching the whole fight and just waiting for them to let their guard down, had already leapt down from the roof of the nearby shop and was descending towards them with the point of its own yari coming first.

Kamui was too weak to block, too pained to dodge, and the boy was too slow. At the very least, he was about to die –

- when a golden blur slammed into the helmet of the monster and knocked it off course.

_This is becoming a very common occurrence in my life_, Kamui realized.

The monster hit the ground and literally went to pieces. Whatever arcane force had held the armor together dissolved with the death of the spirit inhabiting it. This time Kamui could see the entirety of the foul smoke rising from the chinks in the armor and he knew it was the remains of the spirit, dissipating in the air.

"Shin-kun, what the _hell _did we say about taking your helmet off in a fight?"

Something orange and metal slammed into the ground not three feet away from the group, making Jun squawk in surprise and stagger back. The orange thing turned out to be a tall, heavyset man in orange armor vaguely similar to the boy's. Two unevenly sized horns were set on either side of his helmet and a thick bo staff was carried on his back. As he took a step toward them, his faceplate broke apart and slid up inside his helmet. His face was dark and ruddy, bringing a farmer to mind.

"Touma could have put an arrow into your skull just as easily as that thing's!" The newcomer jerked a thumb towards the rapidly crumbling remains of the second monster.

The boy, apparently named Shin, flushed again, this time in embarrassment. "I'm very sorry, Shuu-san. I thought the fight was over."

Another loud clanging sound drew everyone's attention to the rear. A man in dark blue armor, his helmet rising to a high peak, was putting a golden bow onto his back after having jumped off the roof of the sweetshop. He was almost as tall as Shuu, though not as wide. His faceplate remained firmly in place when he addressed Shin.

"Shin-kun, the fight's just starting. If you're going to take any part of your armor off, I would be very careful about securing the area first. And please remember to give us some warning before you _ever _fire off a sure-kill, unless you know for sure that we aren't in the way. You almost hit Seiji."

"I _what_?" Shin looked horrified.

Another clanging sound and another metal-clad man dropping from the sky. _I could start a collection_, Kamui thought.

This one was taller than both the previous arrivals, and his helmet was open to reveal a face with pale skin and a violet eye, the other being hidden behind a swath of golden hair.

"You almost hit me," said Seiji. If he was annoyed by his near vaporization, he did not show it. "You would have, if Touma had not warned me in time. You are very lucky that he has such good senses."

"I am so sorry," Shin gushed. "Please forgive me! I'll do better in the future."

"You'd better," Shuu warned. "Sanada-san looked ready to kill something."

Shin's face went dead white and Kamui swore he could hear the boy gulping.

Shuu did not seem to notice this and was looking around, his face etched with an expression of annoyance. "Where is the high and mighty one, anyway? He was right behind us a second ago."

Touma answered. "Oh, I felt someone watching us, so he's off greeting our new neighbors."

Shin blinked. "What?"

"_Take cover!"_

At the shout, which had come from a shop or two ahead of the group, Touma immediately grabbed Kamui and dashed over to the nearest shop before putting him down. Cries of outrage indicated that the same had happened to Jun and Nasuti. Touma shoved Kamui into a corner and stood in front of him.

"Close your eyes and cover your ears," Touma warned, and then the world shook.

Having a vague idea of what was going to happen. Kamui did as he was told. Just like the last time, light bright enough to burn his eyes through their lids filled every corner of his vision. Even through his hands, he could still hear the horrible roar of an attack that could rip apart a city block without effort.

And then there was the power.

Kamui had a feeling that he would be aware of that attack even had he stayed in Hakkanai. It was easily ten times what Shin's sure-kill had produced.

The ground shook ever harder when Kamui felt the attack strike a target and just as he thought the whole building would come down on his head, it stopped. The light faded and the noise ceased. Touma was dragging him up to his feet before he had his bearings and guiding him toward the doorway.

As he had thought, it was worse than Shin's attack. Never mind a department store – whole _blocks_ had been erased and the damage seemed to go on for over three miles. Vaguely, Kamui recognized the area he was staring at to be the site where Shinjuku's skyscrapers began. It did not have as many skyscrapers now.

Kamui decided then and there that if anyone ever had to explain this whole situation, it would never be him.

Clanging drew his attention to the cloud of dust that risen by the start of the damage. A fifth metal-clad form was walking out of the dust, sheathing two katana on his back. When he was emerged into plain sight, Kamui saw a young man with intensely bright blue eyes and vibrant red armor. Unlike the other four, however, something about this one made the hair on Kamui's neck stand on end.

"The Mitsui Building, Ryo?" Seiji asked, sounding exasperated. "Really? Please tell me you were not aiming for it."

"All right, I was not aiming for it," Sanada said easily. Then his gaze shifted to Shin and any easiness in it vanished. "And _you_. We are going to have a long talk about situational awareness, you and I."

"Yes, Sanada-san," Shin said miserably.

"Sanada-san," Touma spoke up. "They're still there."

Sanada looked faintly surprised. "Really? I thought I hit them for certain."

"_It would take more than your pathetic attack to drive us away!"_

The voice was harsh, hateful and arrogant; despite those qualities, however, Kamui thought he heard a note of doubt in the words.

He followed the voice and his eyes found four figures standing on the roof of one of the surviving skyscrapers. Though they were far away, what little of their outline he could see did not remind him of the armor worn by the monsters.

"Ah, Shuten Douji!" Sanada yelled. "No wonder Hashiba-san smelled something foul!"

"Your arrogance will be repaid in agony a hundred times over, fool! We will crush you and win this world for our master! Though we would happily strike now, in his infinite mercy he has given you a chance to live and serve him! Join us now and live forever in glory, or defy Arago-sama and die a peasant's death!"

"A kind proposal from a demon!" Sanada countered. His words were mocking and Kamui thought he was trying very hard not to laugh. "Hashiba-san, would you like to give them our answer?"

"Happily," Touma said. One smooth motion had him with his bow in his hands and an arrow drawn back. It released with a beautiful hum and flew faster than Kamui could see. The one among the Masho it sought, that Shuten Douji as Sanada had named him, had no such trouble and knocked it cleanly out of the air with another kusari-gama.

"Masho!" Sanada yelled. "You say your master offers glory! I say he offers slavery! We are the defenders of this world and we will not allow him to take it as his own! So if you are so eager to crush us and bring victory to his name, by all means come down and we can settle this now! If not, _THEN STOP WASTING OUR TIME AND SHOW US THE WAY TO YOUR MASTER, YOU DISHONOURABLE MAGGOTS!"_

The vehemence in Sanada's voice was startling. Even more so were the emotions Kamui could feel behind them. Sanada truly, deeply hated those Masho and their master.

The feeling was mutual, it seemed.

The one who had been speaking, Shuten Douji, bristled visibly even to someone from Kamui's far off position.

"Sanada, you fool! You will die first!" Shuten Douji howled and then all four were enveloped in orbs of light that carried them high into the sky. As they rose up, the ominous clouds parted at long last and Kamui could finally see what had been hidden behind them.

It was the castle from his nightmares; an impossible thing of wicked edged spires and black walls. It looked nearly as big as Shinjuku itself and it overlooked the city like a starving wolf.

"Oh," Jun whimpered from somewhere behind him.

The world lurched and Kamui nearly fell to the ground again. Only Shuu's quick reaction saved him from the pavement. Hanging from Shuu's arms like a ragdoll, Kamui felt the full force of the apparition's message reverberate like a gong through his head.

SAMURAI TROOPERS, YOU ARE AS NOTHING BEFORE ME. I AM ARAGO-SAMA AND THIS WORLD SHALL BE MINE. I WILL HUNT YOU LIKE THE DOGS YOU ARE AND HANG YOUR BODIES FROM MY GATES. BEG MY MERCY NOW OR BE MY DOOMED ENEMIES FOR THE REST OF YOUR SHORT LIVES.

And Sanada _laughed_.

"Arago, you say you will take this world," said Sanada. Behind him, the other samurai (and was he really thinking of them as actual samurai? But the word fit them. It really did) stood firm.

"I say, _COME AND TRY!"_


End file.
